Breaking the Internet
When the bits stopped flowing
It was 5:47 pm when I came out of my office. As I walked slowly toward the parking garage, I realized it was only the third time this year that I worked from the office. All because of an internet breakdown that impacted ninety percent of the population in the US.
It all happened at midnight a week ago. A group of professional hackers took down the 1000 plus ISPs operating in the US. All the night owls browsing the internet were suddenly greeted by the infamous “404 not found” message. It was a meticulously planned and synchronized attack that broke the internet in the US. The rumor was that the hackers were asking for 100 billion dollars to release their grip on the ISPs.
All hell broke the next day. A domino effect brought down the major services one by one. Stock trading was suspended. Credit card transactions didn’t go through. Millions of remote workers couldn’t log into their office network. Traffic to Facebook and Google servers plummeted. With no YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video, people were just staring at their living room wall, not knowing what to do.
As I parked the car in front of my home, I wondered what I would do that evening. I have played all the downloaded games on my phone. I have read the April issue of Fortune three times. I was one of the early cable cutters, so there was nothing I could watch on TV. There was a DVD of Seinfeld Season 4 somewhere, but I had watched it so many times I knew all the dialog by heart.
My question was answered when I opened the mailbox. Among the usual junk mail and monthly bills, there was a bright red envelope. It looked vaguely familiar. With a rush of adrenaline, I tore open the envelope.
It was a shiny new Blu-Ray disc of Ozark Season 4 from Netflix.
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